I like this shot. How can I make it better?

[teamracephotos]

http://teamracephotos.smugmug.com/gallery/2784955#149553156-L-LB
We have some smoke in the air for a couple of days due to a wildfire down here in Florida. This has made the sunsets on or lake very interesting. You normally can’t see the house with the sun going down behind it but the haze has lessened the sun. How can I make the house stand out better?
Thank you for your time.

[wxwax]

The Cletus Method (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=2478)is one of many ways.

[BillyVerden]

Was fun trying to get the darker look without losing the house. I think it actually comes out a little brighter once everything else is darker. Plus i fixed the sun by taking out some of the burn in. Of course it may be way too dark for your tastes or monitor. But it doesn't look too too dark on mine. But i love dark photos anyway. Thanks for a nice exercise. Lol. But the jpeg compression really takes alot out of it.

[BillyVerden]

Less conpression.

[teamracephotos]

Was fun trying to get the darker look without losing the house. I think it actually comes out a little brighter once everything else is darker. Plus i fixed the sun by taking out some of the burn in. Of course it may be way too dark for your tastes or monitor. But it doesn't look too too dark on mine. But i love dark photos anyway. Thanks for a nice exercise. Lol. But the jpeg compression really takes alot out of it.

Thats just what I was looking for. The program is am using is lightroom from adobe. What did you use to do this? This was shot in NEF but converted to JPG @ 70%. Would you recommend I not use any compression?
Thanks for the input.

[BillyVerden]

Thats just what I was looking for. The program is am using is lightroom from adobe. What did you use to do this? This was shot in NEF but converted to JPG @ 70%. Would you recommend I not use any compression?
Thanks for the input.
Well i used Photoshop. The compression i mentioned was just for the two different version i uploaded. That wasn't how i edited the photo. I just used different layers of filters and some other things to get the darker sections and used a calculation to get the house brighter. You probably should level the horizon/water line too.

Glad it turned out like you wanted it. Thought it might be too dark for you. Lol.

[rutt]

Do you want to be able to see into the shadows or not? Here are two versions:

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/149637915-L.jpghttp://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/149638900-L.jpg

Both are variations of Dan Margulis' new workflow ideas (http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=58886). The only real difference is the first omits the false profile step.

Oh, and I HIRALOAM sharpened the L and A+B layers separately. I'm finding that a much higher radius and amount are often appropriate for the A+B channels than for the L. I'll make a separate thread on this topic soon. Watch Finishing school.